


When The Party's Over

by lmontyy



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Angst, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Ellie - Freeform, F/F, Girls with Guns, Joel - Freeform, Lesbian Character, Lots of Angst, Major Character Injury, Major character death - Freeform, So much angst, TLOU, TLOU2, The Last of Us - Freeform, dina - Freeform, ellie and dina, ellie and dina are the most wholesome girlfriends, ellie and joel, ellie and joel are the most wholesome father daughter relationship, ellie williams, ellie x dina, jackson county, the last of us 2, tlou 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-12 23:48:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20572955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lmontyy/pseuds/lmontyy
Summary: A bandit ambush on a patrol causes tragedy for the people of Jackson County.WARNING: Major character death!





	When The Party's Over

Her rifle was cocked, tucked tightly beneath her armpit. The sounds of gunshots echoed through the bare branches and off the tree trunks, cracked through her eardrums, and bounced off her skull. There were people, friends, drowning in their own pools of blood around her, their clothes pierced with bullets that ripped through the fabric, the material torn and destroyed. Their faces were blank, their eyes lifeless, their bodies lacking any motion. They were all dead.

She felt herself panicking, her heart racing at speeds it had never reached before. She didn’t know where to aim her gun, didn’t know where to focus, didn’t know where to pull the trigger. The gunshots were everywhere, all of them surrounding, and little by little they were closing in on her. What chance did she even have of successfully getting away from this?

It had been a patrol gone wrong. A massive group of bandits from the area had jumped down from the trees around them, crawled out of holes and trenches in the ground. They had been setting up an ambush spot for God knows how long, just waiting for one of Jackson County’s patrols to be sent out, and here it was. She was just unlucky enough to be on it.

She wanted her father. He hadn’t been there to protect her. One of the only times she’d gone out without him, the unexpected struck. What would he even do, if he found out? If she didn’t make it? She needed to look after him like he did her. She couldn’t leave him, she didn’t want to. The snow and frost around her bit at her nose, cheeks, ears, and even her lips, and she wanted nothing more than to be in the embrace of her father, or her lover. Oh, what would she do?

Her lover, her best friend, her girlfriend. What if she never saw her again? She would be crushed, she would never get over it, she knew that. She promised to protect her, and how could she protect her if she was killed in a situation like this? But, in a way, she was somehow with her. Maybe it was in the stitching of her clothing. The smell of her girlfriend was around her. She needed her.

Her thoughts closed in around her quicker than the bullets. She was hiding behind a massive trunk of a grand spruce tree. The camp wasn’t that far. They were so close, they had almost made it. She could run if she wanted, but she could still hear the muffled cries and screams of her friends and citizens around her, and her legs couldn’t move. She was crouched down, rifle ready, but her arms wouldn’t shift, like she was locked into place from shock, fear, whatever it was. She couldn’t move, she was stuck. Tears formed at her beautiful eyes, and suddenly, she was fourteen again in the cannibal settlement, crying, panicked, tortured. She’s rendered a child, once again, and she feels utterly useless.

A bullet flies into the front of the trunk that she’s hiding behind, vibrating the surface and making her jump with fright. Quickly snapping out of it, she swings her rifle over the side of the tree and puts her eye to the scope. Seeing the man with a .22 rifle aimed right in her direction through the scope, she hastily pulls the trigger and barely has time to watch him fall to the cold floor clutching his chest before she’s behind the trunk once more, her chest rising and falling heavily.

From the corner of her eye, she can see her friend, Michael, struggling for a weapon in a hand-to-hand combat with one of the bandits in the nearby trees. He was drenched in blood, and weakening by the second. Lifting her rifle for a second time, she pointed it to the scuffle, and once she had a split second chance, fired a round into the back of his attacker’s head. Michael took a heaving breath of relief before searching in her direction, shooting her a pleading thanks with his eyes. It was only a second later that a bullet went right through his skull, and he dropped to the floor, dead, staining the snowy floor a sickening dark red.

Turning away quickly, she found herself inching around the tree, unable to even fathom an emotion for her friend’s death, as it had happened so quick, and there was such an overwhelming environment around her that she didn’t even have a second to grieve. Reloading her gun, she was nearly killed in a second as a bullet found its way just barely grazing the edge of the wood she hid behind. With another jump of fright, she attempted the same maneuver, only this time, she had lagged a millisecond too long, and a round lodged itself deep into her shoulder. She gave a curt scream of agony, but quickly silenced herself as she attempted one-handedly to fire a round in defense against her attacker. Positioning the rifle at the edge of the tree once again, she didn’t even look before shooting two rounds, seconds apart, in the direction of the gunfire. After a moment with no response, she peeked over just barely to see a new body on the ground and an arterial wound spurting blood and coloring the snow with droplets of red as the man slowly bled out.

Heaving, she quickly reloaded her rifle with her one good arm. With that same arm, she tore a piece of cloth from her backpack and removed her heavy coat, examining the wound through her long-sleeved thin sweater she’d worn underneath. The entire radius of the wound which had been a spiking pain shooting down her arm was dark red, the blood from her shoulder spilling out and seeping through her shirt and into the fabric of the sweater she wore. She couldn’t ruin it, she chastised herself for being so careless. She told herself she wouldn’t ruin it.

Little by little, less gunfire could be heard. In no way did she take this as a good thing. She’d watched her entire patrol get killed off one by one, and with a drop of her stomach, the silence whispered to her that she was the last one standing.

She peered around to the spot where Michael had been shot, and all she could see through the snowfall was his lifeless body. Peaking over the side of the the trunk on the other side, her other friends, Joe, Ulysses, Hannah, and Gabe were littered all over the floor like trash atop a city street, motionless, wasted. The voices of the remaining ones, Garrett, Riya, Merryweather, nowhere to be heard. No gunfire was left booming in the air. The silence was nauseating.

She could make a break for it, she thought. She could run and run and never look back. She could run and hope a bullet didn’t end up in her back. What choice did she really have left, anyway?

Just as she was about to stand and sprint in the opposite direction, a large man with a beard, beanie, and flannel had cocked his handgun and pointed it right at her midsection. All emotion, all adrenaline had dropped to her feet and buried itself in the snow beneath her. She felt numb. With a drop of her rifle, she slowly put her hands up. No words passed her lips.

She wanted to beg, but she couldn’t. Please, please, I have a father, I have a girl, I have to take care of them, she wanted to say. But nothing could come out, she couldn’t muster a single sound. The only sound that could be heard next was the cracking of gunfire echoing through the air, and the sound of her body hitting the floor.

–––

“Where have they been? It’s been hours already!”

Katie’s impatient groans cut through Dina’s thoughts like a hot knife through butter. Dina, as well as Katie, Henry, Chopper, and Avi had all been waiting for the returning patrol that had set out at noon. Essentially, all of their friends had been on the patrol, save for a few adults. They were heading to the nearby town they discovered no more than a few days ago to raid it. Rumor has it there was a candy shop next to a liquor store, and the teens had promised to bring back vodka and chocolate for them all to share. None of them had tasted any kind of sweets in a significant amount of time, and they were always itching to score some alcohol whenever they could.

While the others had been waiting rather impatiently for the others to return with their promised Hershey bars and Starbursts, beer, vodka, and goose, Dina sat anxiously anticipating the return of her girlfriend. She hadn’t seen her since the morning, before she set off to get ready. A terrible pit hung painfully in her stomach, as if something was wrong, but she couldn’t tell what. It didn’t help her anxiety, that was all she knew for sure. The cold burning her face hadn’t been helping much, either.

“Would you relax?” Dylan nudged her from the edge of the guard tower. “They’ll be back any minute, it’s only a thirty minute walk or so. Besides, all of them can handle themselves in case of an emergency. They’ll be fine.”

“I hope Garrett is okay…” Fiona, a shy little nerdy girl in their friend group muttered under her breath. She’d had a massive crush on the tall, blonde, boy with terrible eyesight and nerdy glasses years ago.

“I’m sure he’s gonna be fine, Fiona, don’t worry,” Dylan assured her. He gave a quick glance over to Dina, who was staring off into the snowy trees, bouncing her leg and chewing her short fingernails she usually kept manicured, but had bit off in a fit of anxiety. “You doing okay, Dina?”

She quickly turned to him, snapping out of it.

“Oh, yeah…” She said, not convincingly. “I’m fine.”

He walked over to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, and staring out into the trees with her.

“You’re worried about her, huh?”

“Of course I am,” she shot back, almost defensively. After a moment, she heaved. “Sorry. Yeah, I’m kind of terrified.”

“Kind of?” he scoffed, a soft grin forming. “You look like you’re about to burn down this tower.” He joked lightly.

“If they don’t come back soon, I just might.”

They were all silent for some time after that. Another hour or so had passed, and the fear pent up inside Dina started to worsen and worsen, and soon it became a painful, eating away at her stomach and her organs until she forced herself to stand and walk around. Her hands were shaking.

“Holy shit… what is that?!” 

All of the teens ran to the railing, panicked breaths forming in the air around them. Two bodies emerged from the trees, one limping, and the other motionless. After about a second, they could make out the limping boy to be Garrett, and he was supporting Merryweather, who had a limp arm around Garret’s neck and was secured to his friend by an arm around the waist.

“Help!” Garrett’s scream echoed through the air, and grabbed the attention of the guards at the gate. Startled, they quickly realized who it was and opened the gates instantly. Dina, Dylan, Fiona, and Kate all watched from the railing, leaning over in shock, trying to hear anything and everything that was happening.

“W-We w-were attacked!” Garrett’s panicked yells shook Dina to her core. “H-He’s alive–” he said, referring to Merryweather who looked very much the opposite on his shoulder, “–We ran just in time… I-I didn’t see anyone else…!”

A large, familiar body sprinted up to the wounded boy. Dina recognized that to be Joel immediately. He had a panicked expression on his face, one she had never seen before, not on him. He was always stoic and calm, even in the worst situations that faced Jackson County in the past. This is a side of him Dina had never seen before.

“Where is she?” He demanded, grabbing Garrett by the shoulders. “Where is she? Did you see her?”

After Garrett gave a whimper in pain, Joel let up.

“N-No! No, sir, I didn’t see her…” he answered honestly, struggling for breath.

Joel’s eyes widened, and his face sank. He turned tail and sprinted through whoever was there towards the horse stables.

“We need to get a group out there right now,” one of the guards stated firmly, turning to his other guards and assigning them to posts.

Many of the people in the nearby area volunteered, and raced towards their homes, the weapon and ammo garage, spare storages all around the settlement. The widely populated horse stables was opened by Joel, who was already saddling a horse and loading his gun.

Dina’s heart fell to her feet, her stomach felt like it exploded. Her thoughts were paused, and she felt nothing but shock and fear. 

A group of guards stormed onto the tower platform.

“The party’s over, people,” he growled coldly through his helmet. “Get lost.”

The teens quickly got up and ran out. Dina’s mind was doing a million an hour, her thoughts that swarmed back overwhelming her and shaking her. Her hands felt numb with disbelief.

“We need to get on those horses right now,” Dylan affirmed.

“I can’t,” Fiona said, her voice shaky. “I need to make sure Garrett is okay.” Fiona and Dina had both worked in the med garage, and Fiona had seen enough of Garrett’s injuries to freak out. Obviously, she was going to prioritize him, but that was okay. Dina knew where her priorities lied, too.

“Fine,” Dylan dismissed. “Dina, are you staying to help Fiona with Garrett and Merryweather?”

“No, no,” The words flew out of her mouth. “I’m going with you.”

Dylan stared at for a moment, silent. Upon realizing her decision was final and why she’d made it, he nodded and they turned towards the stairs. They hustled down, and ran to the storage garage beneath the tower. Dylan and Katie opted for rifles, and Dina took a handgun. Jesse, her ex-boyfriend, ran in a few moments later, taking a shotgun from the wall, giving her a quick glance, and then fled for the gates.

The party collected at the gate, which was already open after Joel took off before anyone else, despite everyone’s call for him to return. Dylan, Katie, and Dina were awaiting the horses to be brought alongside Jesse, Tommy, and a dozen other members of the settlement. The pounding of hooves could be heard as they brought the herd of horses down from the stables, and everyone readied to grab one. There were about eight horses they managed to get ahold of, so when Dylan mounted a horse, Dina followed suit and sat behind him on the saddle, grabbing onto his waist for support as the horses began to take off one by one.

They all stayed within twenty to thirty feet of one another, the cavalry charging towards the site of the attack. Garrett and Merryweather’s bloodied trail led them to the approximate area.

Dina couldn’t even register one thought on the ride to the site. Her thoughts were moving so fast that she couldn’t pinpoint one. She could barely feel any of her extremities; they were all numb, both from the cold and from the shock factor. One moment, they’d been sitting in the guard tower looking out for the patrol, the next they were on horseback racing towards possibly a near dozen corpses, one of them could be her. Her lover, her girlfriend.

After no more than ten minutes traveling, they finally reached what they’d been looking for. The first thing they were able to locate was a corpse. Despite her hopes and prayers that the corpse wasn’t one of theirs, of course, it was. Ulysses’s lifeless body was face-down in the snow, his shotgun off to his left, covered with blood. He was barely identifiable; the only thing that gave it away was his signature vest that he wore on every patrol. Ulysses had just celebrated his seventeenth birthday two months before. He was happy, so full of life, and now, two months later, he had his face in the snow and was drenched in his own blood.

Two of the civilians in the group had hopped off one of the horses and raced for Ulysses’s body. They examined it grimly, but Dina barely had time to watch their faces drop with grief before they were far behind them. Dylan stopped the horse about two hundred feet from his body, and when both he and Dina jumped down, Dina was faced with a grim sight. 

Off to the left were two more bodies, both being examined dreadfully by others in the community. The two lifeless bodies were she recognized to be Hannah and Joe. Joe was lying on his back, his eyes open wide as if he’d watched the sky collapse on him before he died. His expression was haunting. His shotgun, also bared to his left, had flown a few feet after he had, judging by the multiple bullet wounds, been shot by another powerful shotgun. Hannah didn’t seem to have been shot, rather stabbed in the gut repeatedly with a knife or shank. Her pistol was still just barely in her hand, her fingers still closed around the trigger.

Spread amongst the dead bodies of their friends and family were the dead bodies of their attackers, which outnumbered the bodies from Jackson. They were dressed as typical bandits, covered in old, tattered clothing that was stolen from all over. They wore beanies, scarves, masks. They were predominantly male, as females and children were seen as weak.

Joel was digging around frantically in the snow, searching behind trunks and off in bushes.

“Ellie?!” He called out desperately. “Where are you, baby girl? Joel’s here now! Ellie?” 

Joel’s panicked cries made Dina’s heart shatter into a million pieces. But her adrenaline was far too high for her to stay put and watch.

“Ellie?” Dina called out, her voice breaking. “Ellie, where are you?”

More and more troops piled in, jumping off from the tops of their horses and coming to watch in awe as the scene before them widened. They began to notice all of the bodies littered around, their faces dropping more and more the longer they looked. Dina’s heart was racing at a thousand beats per minute.

“Ellie, please, where are you?” She begged, hoping the girl would come out of the bushes and tell her that this was all just some sick joke, maybe a prank, anything other than this. They were all dead, and for all she knew, Ellie could be, too. She forced herself to swallow that thought and block it out while she continued to look. 

Joel went off towards the right, jumping with shock as he rounded a tree and found another lifeless body beneath him. He barely glanced at it, and continued off west, while Dina turned to the east and settled on searching in that direction. Behind the tree, she could make out the limp body to be Michael’s, a young man in his twenties. From afar, she couldn’t determine his cause of death, but she hoped in the back of her mind it had been quick.

“Ellie?” She called, starting out towards the east. She came across some bloodied trees. Scattered around were empty bullet casings, scraps of cloth, and a bandit’s dead body. He had two rounds in him, one in the leg, and one in the chest.

“Ellie, come on!”

She continued to call out for her girlfriend, until finally, she recognized something in the snow. Nearly drowned in frozen snowflakes was Ellie’s backpack. Dina felt all the blood leave her body. She feared she would discover a corpse, or she would discover nothing at all.

Her legs began to move on their own, quickly through the snow.

“Ellie? Ellie?!” Beneath her boots she noticed a patch of blood stained into the snow. The panic was eating her alive. She heaved for breath, but continued to run. She could hardly feel her legs anymore. 

Sobs began to slip past her lips, sneaking in with her breaths. Her girlfriend was nowhere in sight, and more and more blood was appearing all over her, soaked into the beautiful, white snow. She felt as if the world was spinning around her.

Finally, she saw a rifle in the snow, poking out from behind a tree nearby. The blood was leading to behind that same tree. Grimly, Dina slowly began to make her way over, dreading the sight she was about to potentially uncover. It was only after she cleared the whole tree that she found her.

Slumped against the tree, half her body in the snow, half against the tree, Ellie was motionless, surrounded by blood-soaked snow. The blood on the trunk behind her had frozen to the wood. Her rifle was loosely in her hands, and her eyes were hardly open. A slip of blood had frozen to her lips and chin, her nose running from the cold. There were three bullets planted into her midsection, one on her chest and two littered on her abdomen. There was another bullet planted in her shoulder, but that one looked older than the others.

“Oh, my God… no…” Dina gasped in complete disbelief, falling to her knees. “No!” She screamed in complete agony, and listened as her voice echoed off the trunks of the trees and through the frozen, dead leaves.

She crawled frantically towards the ginger-haired girl, grabbing her frozen face with her numb hands. She was sobbing now, the tears uncontrollably rolling down her face. The sight before her was unreal, she refused to believe it. It was all fake. There was no way she was dead.

“Ellie… Ellie!” Dina shook her, trying to retain any life left in her body. After a quick shake, Ellie turned her head ever so slowly, looking up into the musty eyes of her girlfriend.

“Ellie, oh, my God,” Dina cried, pulling her closely to her chest and embracing her. “Oh, my God, baby, it’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.” She tried to assure herself, but the doubt was wrenching her stomach. “What happened? Who did this to you?” She pressed.

The girl didn’t respond, only looked up at Dina. Nothing moved but her head. Her eyes still remained half-open, dull, and pained. It was as if Dina was just watching the life slip from her. Ellie couldn’t muster any words, but after a moment, she smiled. The smile formed on her face very slowly, but it was almost peaceful.

Dina’s tears were coming out faster now, dropping all over her wounded lover’s body, and freezing to her clothes.

“Please, baby, stay with me!” She pleaded, grabbing for any kind of cloth she could and applying pressure to the gunshots.

“Joel!” Dina screamed at the top of her lungs, frantically trying to work on Ellie, but nothing was stopping the bleeding. “Joel!!”

Hoping he heard her calls, Dina drowned out everything happening around her. She didn’t even care that her attackers could still be around. Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out gauzes, and soon she discovered a bullet wound to her bicep after some more examining. She ripped a piece of Ellie’s heavy coat off and tied it tightly around her arm, just above her wound. The bleeding stopped after a few seconds, but it wasn’t doing anything for the pouring wounds to her abdomen.

Heavy, panicked footsteps emerged from afar. She could hear the scuffling of someone running towards her.

“Ellie?!” Joel called out, and Dina peeked over the side of the tree, now covered in Ellie’s blood.

“Joel, help! Over here!”

The man began sprinting even faster towards her, but shots rang out in the air, and the group– that had to be a good two hundred feet away– all scattered for cover. Joel, being out in the open, had to make a dive for a tree, stopping him from reaching his daughter.

“I’ll hold ‘em off!” Joel shouted. “Is she okay?” He pressed in a frenzied voice.

“I don’t… I don’t know!” Dina called back, because truthfully, she didn’t know. If Ellie was going to make it through this or not, she had no idea.

“Just… take care of her! Please!” He begged, his voice cracking in panic. She heard him cocking his gun from a few trees away. The shots were getting closer. Thankfully, Ellie and her were out of reach. 

Dina turned her focus back to Ellie, who was looking more lifeless by the second.

“Oh, my God… Ellie… please, just talk to me,” Dina pleaded. “Tell me you’re going to be okay, anything, please…!”

The only thing she received was the most innocent, poor, defenseless puppy face from her lover. The most devastating smile. How could she be smiling?

“Please…” Dina said through sobs. “I love you… so much… please, please don’t leave me like this, Ellie, please…” She grabbed her girlfriend once again by her cold cheeks. “I need you, I can’t do this without you… I love you so much, Ellie.”

Ellie could only blink slowly in response. I love you, too. Dina had heard her say it time and time again. Ellie telling her that she loved her was engrained in her mind. She knew what every word sounded like, every vowel, the way it rolled off her tongue. Her eyes said it all.

“You’re gonna be okay… okay?” Dina ushered frantically. “You’re going to be just fine. We’re gonna get you back to Jackson, fix you up, and then you, Joel, and I can all have dinner again. Remember, like we used to?”

Ellie blinked again.

“Remember, when we all had dinner, and then we went up to your room and we laughed and watched that old movie?” Dina lamented, the tears falling uncontrollably. “We cuddled that whole night. It was the best night I’ve ever had. I never wanted it to end. Please, we can do it again.”

Still, no response.

“I told you that I loved you for the first time that night, too, remember? Remember, Ellie?” She kept trying, desperately, to get a hold of her. “I meant it, and I still do. Forever and always, I will mean it.”

Ellie’s smile began to fade ever so slightly. The muscles began to loosen.

“And then on my birthday,” Dina continued, talking faster now. “You came to the garage to give me those flowers you got from that shop in River Bay. You told me how grateful you were for me. I’m so, so grateful for you, Ellie…”

Her head began to turn to face forward again, just as she’d found her.

“And then last night… You told me that you would always fight for me, and that you would never leave me… Remember, Ellie? Please tell me you remember…!”

Dina placed her fingers on Ellie’s wrist, feeling the slow, erratic pulse. Her eyelids began to droop again.

“You told me you would always protect me, and you would always be there for me no matter what, Ellie, you told me you’d never go, Ellie…” Dina sobbed. “Please, please don’t go now…”

The pulse stopped, and Ellie’s head drooped as the muscles in her neck stopped resisting.

“Ellie… Ellie… you promised…” 

Dina pressed her fingers to the divot in her neck.

“I love you, Ellie. I love you so much, please…”

There was no beat.

There were no more breaths in the frosty air.

The gunfire stopped. Everything went silent.

Dina fell forward, face in her hands, and she choked on her sobs. The gasps of breath through each cry were loud and painful, the cold air burning her lungs and throat. She couldn’t stop the tears as they poured from her eyes.

Joel’s footsteps got closer, and finally, they stopped right beside her. She heard his gun fall to the floor. And she felt his body slump down to his knees next to hers. He was speechless. 

Slowly but surely, the group followed Joel’s footsteps, and collected around Ellie’s lifeless body. They found Dina, sobbing wildly, and Joel, so grief-stricken he hadn’t spoken a single word. The only thing that anyone could hear were Dina’s cries.

When she looked up, through her blurred, wet vision, she could briefly see the tears on Joel’s devastated face. And as she looked at Ellie again, she noticed the sweater Ellie had been wearing seemed oddly familiar. It was soaked in Ellie’s blood. It was thin, soft, and light pink, with a big ‘D’ stitched into the chest.

Dina had been wondering where her sweater went.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading!  
The title was inspired by a line in the story, but was mainly inspired by the song "When The Party's Over" by Billie Eilish. I was listening to the song, and it was so slow and sad and it made me want to write a sad fic, and thus, this was born.   
I hope you all enjoyed!  
Please leave a kudos and a comment if you enjoyed, I always welcome constructive criticism, and be sure to check in as I do post fics every once and a while. I really do want to get back into writing, but my life's been kinda hectic lately. I have other fics, one of them being an Ellie x Dina, so I'd appreciate it if you checked that out, too!  
Suggestions and requests for stories are always appreciated and always considered, so please leave them!  
My tumblr is: @lmontyy! I post/reblog a lot of stuff regarding my fandoms, the main ones usually being The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and Life is Strange. I would love some suggestions and requests for those fandoms.  
Thanks again for reading!


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